Serious interior designers still lament that fateful day in the 1980s when British magazine The World of Interiors coined the term 'shabby chic'. It described a design style characterised by the use of cheap, tatty antiques along with cheap, modern furniture made to appear antique and worn.
The aesthetic is said to have been inspired by the crumbling grand homes found in the British countryside, with their ageing fabrics and faded paintings and furniture. The style was made famous by Rachel Ashwell. The Briton had been living in the United States since 1983, working as a set designer and print stylist. Following the birth of her children, she abandoned her career to focus on her family. Soon, she began decorating her home in a style that came to be known as shabby chic. She scoured flea markets for furniture and painted it white, then sanded it back to give it a distressed look, or covered sofas and chairs with slip-covers.
She copyrighted the term Shabby Chic, churned out several books on the subject and opened a homeware store in Santa Monica, California, in 1989, filled with painted flea market finds, chintzy chandeliers and crushed white slip-covers. Twenty years later there were 15 stores around the US, a line of Shabby Chic products at Target and an annual turnover of US$20 million. The movement became ultra-mainstream - much to the chagrin of interior designers.
'There is nothing chic about shabby chic,' says Natalie Manning from Marco Meneguzzi Design. 'It looks cheap and nasty because it is. And it has definitely had its day.'
Had its day? Well, maybe not. Last year Ashwell's Shabby Chic filed for bankruptcy but another investor stepped in and saved the company. It seems as long as there are enough people prepared to paint crappy old furniture and sand it back, shabby chic is here to stay.